Denzil Abrahams

#GoodNews #GreatNews

Church history is littered with bad marriages. John Wesley—founder of the Methodist movement and one of the three key preachers in the First Great Awakening (along with George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards)—had a notoriously bad marriage that was full of fights and fits. He and his wife, Molly, relentlessly insulted each other, and their arguments went from private to public. John thought Molly was a rebellious woman who should quietly wait for and on him. Molly was tired of being home alone while he was gone for months at a time on preaching trips. Once, in 1758, when John was preparing to go on another preaching tour, his parting words to her were: “I hope I shall see your wicked face no more.” Not quite pillow talk, Mr. Wesley. John and Molly separated again and again, until she finally left once and for all. He wrote in his journal, “Finally, she left for good. I did not forsake her, I did not dismiss her, I will not recall her.” This is sad indeed. A man who is considered by many to be the organizing force behind the First Great Awakening could not organize his life in such away as to prioritize his wife and could not bring a great awakening to his dead marriage. Wesley pathetically tried to excuse his long absences and cold demeanor behind a ministry mantra: “for the sake of the cause.” According to Robert Southey, in his book The Life of John Wesley, Wesley compared his own ministry impact with the impact of his wife’s life with these cut-to-the-heart words, “…of what importance is your character to mankind? If you were buried just now, or if you had never lived, what loss would it be to the cause of God.” Ouch. Tragically, Wesley is not the only man of God to have a marriage ruled by the Devil. And this is not true just of church history—it’s true all across the world in many churches today. It was true in my marriage early on. For the first several years of my marriage, I was busy preaching at my church on Sunday and leading Dare 2 Share the rest of the week. When I wasn’t on the road or in the office, I came home to collapse on the couch and watch television. I, like Wesley, subconsciously excused my lameness in loving my wife and leading my marriage on busyness with “the greater cause” of Christ. Then one night, it all blew up in my face when our argument spilled over into public, literally during a Bible study. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I ended up in the fetal position in the middle of the Bible study circle, crying unconsolably for 30 minutes. Why? Because I knew she was right and I was wrong. I was a jerk! I hadn’t been paying attention to her and her needs. I had been pulling a Wesley, “for the sake of the cause.” I wanted my wife Debbie to just suck it up so I could go on the road and save lost souls. It was my soul that needed to be saved, not from the flames of Hell, but from the ice-coldness of a marriage on life-support. That moment marked a turnaround point—not an immediate, full 180, but more like a Wall Street graph headed in the right direction. Yes, there have been—and continue to be—ups and downs. But my wife is the love of my life, and we’ve now been co-laboring side-by-side for, as of yesterday, 33 years! Now we’re together “for the sake of the cause.” Busyness from saving souls and leading ministries is not a good excuse for a bad marriage. Instead, our marriages should be a shining example of the Gospel, full of forgiveness, reconciliation and on-going transformation because of the example of Christ on the cross and power that comes through His Spirit.

Pastors, it’s Monday. Don’t resign. But… Get a good workout in. Drink some better coffee. No big decisions. Easy administration work. Silence and stillness. No hard meetings. Lunch with a life-giving person. Save the rest for later in the week.

In Scripture, a pastor was NOT a guy who stood behind a pulpit,in a church building, holding a Bible,preaching to a crowd. There were no church bldgs until the 4th century No pulpits until the 9th century No printed Bibles til the 15th A pastor was a small group (house) leader!

I just cried the ugly cry throughout this entire doccie. With 2 weeks to go, every #comrades family is drowning in emotions. The wait (taper) is a killer! 🖤💛

Sovereign Grace Music - You Made Us Your Own youtu.be/5Z8aUJ4Szls via @YouTube thank you for this @bkauflin

@SovGraceMusic and @bkauflin this morning I visited one of our township churches in Cape Town, and my heart was so blessed by the music and lyrics of You Made Us Your Own. WOW! I thank the Lord for you all…

Reply with a 🫴 and we'll give you 💸

@bkauflin I thank God for you and @SovGraceMusic and pray that all you do to help us make music in our hearts to the Lord will count for eternity. Thank you for youtu.be/iUNMNNzFRkI

@BryteInsurance still awaiting travel insurance policy documents policy reference number 1228101. Please advise urgently

@StandardBankZA Blue Route Tokai

@denzab Hi Denzil, we apologise for the long waiting period. Which branch did you visit?

@StandardBankZA surely the Bank can do better with serving their clients? Long and frustrating queue to collect credit card!!

@StandardBankZA one hour and twenty minutes and counting to collect a bank card. ONE HOUR and TWENTY MINUTES. And I am still waiting to be served. I feel for the older lady across the branch who has been here since this morning. No man Standard Bank. Just NO!!!

Sitting in the @StandardBankZA Blue Route and here are some very unhappy customers. Oh dear, it looks like the Bank doesn’t care about their loyal customers. Such long waits for simple bank things

@StandardBankZA I’m sorry to grumble, but this service is absolutely UNacceptable. My name has been in the queue for an hour now!!! And I am still waiting to be served - actually just to collect my new credit card

Thank you @CTMarathon for a superb road race yesterday!! Thank you too for the nice goody bag #recoverydrink

Big shout out to @Dischem #Tokai #BlueRoute for sorting out a till slip query shap shap!! Well done guys!!

The new Prime Minister of Italy. Wow. twitter.com/FuryOriental/s…

On the Spirit and #preaching: “When we burn to show the glory of Christ, the Spirit will certainly aid our feeble light.” – Lee Eclov in Robinson and Larson, p. 558